Spirit Week returned, but it looked a lot different compared to years past. When looking around and asking people about their thoughts on this year’s spirit week they seem to have mixed feelings. Something that played a big role in these mixed feelings was the fact that this Spirit Week took place during a Testing Day week when students were only in school for two days.

“It was similar to previous years,” said Mr. Herbstritt, Assistant Vice President of Academics and Student Affairs. Obviously, it occurred during an unusual Testing Day week and it started the Friday prior, but all in all, it seemed well-received.” 

Students, on the other hand, seemed to have similar thoughts while others didn’t really know how to feel about it.

“It was weird only having two days of dress down, but for the most part it was still cool,” said senior Caden Pustelak.

“I enjoyed this year’s dress down, but I don’t think you can really call it a Spirit Week because of how short it was,” added senior Elijah Andrae. 

Even though the week was much shorter than usual, students were still able to do theme dress-downs like jersey day, college day, and superhero day.

“Being a college preparatory school, I enjoyed the college apparel day,” Mr. Herbstritt said. “It’s nice to see what schools students like. It also gives me an interesting perspective when students graduate and I can compare that with where students end up going after Prep.

“The dress down themes were cool but Jersey Day was for sure my favorite,” Caden Pustelak said.

When asking the students about what they missed from past Spirit Weeks and would critique about Spirit Weeks to come, there seems to be a reoccurring theme.

“I’d like to see more emphasis on students following the dress-down theme,” Caden said. “More creative dress-down themes would be fun for students as well.

“I liked it when they used to offer prizes to the best outfits on the dress-down days,” Elijah said. 

The future of Spirit Week seems to be bright.

“The possibility of adding some more school spirit activities into the week,” Mr. Herbstritt said. “I must say the ice cream from The Creamery from Penn State was a nice touch.

In the future, Spirit Week will have more dress-down days and even activities and prizes like in years past.

With Prep and Villas consolidation next year, many people are wondering what will happen to each campus’s traditions and Mr. Herbstritt addressed some of those concerns.

“I really think we are going to get the best of both worlds in the years ahead,” Mr. Herbstritt said. “Both schools have some really great traditions that I feel the students will really enjoy. I am excited for what is on the horizon in yet another unusual year and the future of these two fine institutions becoming one.”